2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS

Befriending Stuttgart's twin-turbocharged beast.

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Porsche’s 911 GT2 RS is a brute, a lightweight, twin-turbocharged, 620-hp bout of madness that stemmed from Stuttgart’s quest to see how high up the sports-car ladder the 911 could punch. Overpowered almost to a fault and with enough grip to peel lane markings off the pavement, it is the most serious roadgoing Porsche ever.

Unlike the previous 996-era GT2, this 997 variant was deemed intense enough to skip straight to the “RS” designation reserved for Porsche’s homologated street-legal racers. That doesn’t mean you’ll see a GT2 RS on a Porsche Cup starting grid, but it illustrates the level of focus the car received.

Making a Rocket

The recipe was simple: Put the company’s most powerful street-legal powerplant ever in the back of a GT3 RS chassis and remove even more weight. The engine is a port-injected, 3.6-liter flat-six from the Le Mans–winning GT1 race car of the late ’90s, with a pair of variable-geometry turbochargers huffing a maximum of 23.2 psi of boost into the combustion chambers. The result is 620 hp at 6500 rpm and 516 lb-ft of torque at 2250. Compared with Porsche’s other leading turbocharged rocket, the 530-hp, all-wheel-drive 911 Turbo S—which is fitted with a seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic—the GT2 RS’s six-speed manual gearbox and rear-drive layout invite a significantly higher level of driver involvement.

Weight was pulled from throughout the car, with a total saving of about 70 pounds compared with the GT3 RS and 400 or so relative to the Turbo S. Some of the more notable lightening bits include a single-mass flywheel, a carbon-fiber hood and front fenders (the latter a $6840 option), various aluminum suspension bits, lighter springs, single-lug wheels, an optional lithium-ion battery ($1700), less sound-deadening material, carbon-fiber racing seats, and polycarbonate rear and rear-side windows. Deleting the infotainment system and air conditioning—as on our example—is a no-cost option and further reduces mass, but we recommend keeping them if you plan on commuting to the track. A roll bar where the rear seats used to be adds several pounds back in, as do airbag-equipped seats and actual glass for the rear windows—these latter two included on U.S. models to meet safety regulations.

Lighting the Candle

Power doesn’t so much build with engine speed as it explodes. The tipping point for maximum thrust is about 4000 rpm, and there’s a slight delay in responsiveness at lower rpm as the turbos violently inhale the atmosphere through the intakes. The mechanical clatter of the engine overlaid with fast-moving, tormented air sounds much angrier than the naturally aspirated wail of a GT3. The lack of boost at low revs actually makes the GT2 RS surprisingly docile to pedal around town—save for the firm yet progressive clutch—but standing starts can be tricky.

Riding the line between bogging out and lighting up the massive rear tires—and doing our best to shift quickly from our tester’s right-seat driving position—we managed a deceptively, um, long 3.3-second run to 60 mph, or 0.5 second slower than our best in a Turbo S with launch control. Although that’s still very quick, the GT2’s acceleration intensifies dramatically once the car is moving and is accompanied by a significant lightening of steering effort as the car squats and squirms for traction. Keeping both hands on the wheel is advised.

The gap between GT2 and Turbo S narrows at the quarter-mile mark (11.1 seconds at 133 mph to 10.8 at 129), and the GT2 takes the lead by 150 mph, which comes up in a blistering 14.4 seconds—1.0 second ahead of the Turbo S and 2.0 seconds quicker than a 638-hp Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. The unrelenting thrust makes the estimated 209-mph top speed entirely believable.

Advanced Guidance

Based as it is on the already stellar GT3 RS, the precision and feel of the GT2’s chassis is sublime, what with its minimal, 3085-pound curb weight and sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup rubber, 245/35-19 in front and 325/30-19 at the rear. Porsche’s adaptive suspension (PASM), carbon-ceramic brakes (PCCB) with center-locking hubs, and defeatable stability- and traction-control systems are all present and do their best to make the GT2 as drivable as possible. The steering is as crisp and tactile as any other road car’s, outright grip is phenomenal and among the highest figures we’ve recorded (1.07 g), and the beautifully firm and progressive brakes can stop the car from 70 mph in a disorienting 145 feet, another near-best.

Overlooking the objective figures, the GT2 RS is simply insanely fast on the road and something of a handful when the front wheels attempt to leave the pavement under maximum acceleration in the lower gears. The snug-fitting racing seats and heavy primary controls are excellent, and the seemingly endless amounts of grip and braking power offered loads of confidence on the fast mountain roads of northern Wales in the U.K. There is no twitchiness or demonic behavior as with previous hard-core 911s, as long as you’re pointed straight before you pin the throttle. Not that it’s a primary concern for such a vehicle, but we also managed an impressive 15 mpg overall during our drive.

Long stints in the driver’s seat of the GT2 do reveal some annoyances. Road noise is brutally loud; the stiff ride is tolerable at best; the semi-slick tires have a terrifying lack of grip on even mildly damp roads; the car scrapes its front splitter on every speed bump (there is no nose-lifting system as on the GT3); and passing maneuvers will always end in speeds fit for incarceration. The GT2 RS feels like a track-day refugee, and with our tester’s bronze-colored wheels, fixed rear wing, and gaudy red-and-black Alcantara-lined interior, it looks like one, too. Factor in the $245,950 starting price (our example’s black paint pushed the as-tested figure to $249,090), and this is a very focused—albeit special—machine of limited use.

Although the recently introduced 500-hp GT3 RS 4.0 has replaced the GT2 RS as the ultimate send-off for the 997—and is probably our pick for the best all-around track-day 911—it’s slightly less exclusive (600 units to the GT2’s already sold-out 500) and nowhere near as excessive. The GT2 is a wallflower next to the sultry lines of a Ferrari 458 Italia, but piloting this Porsche is an extraordinary event on par with that of nearly any blue-chip exotic. We won’t call it the best 911 ever, but it’s definitely Porsche at its most extreme.